Champion of Light and Dark
by JarkosofTroy
Summary: At age seven, Percy Jackson lost his mother to his abusive stepfather. Then, he got a new family in the form of Nyx, Erebus, Aether, and Hemera. Seven years later, Percy is pulled into a quest to rescue the moon goddess and has to deal with two man-haters, a daughter of Zeus, a daughter of Athena, and feelings he's never felt before... ON HIATUS
1. Chapter I - Asfáleia

**A/N: So, I have made the decision to put TD, Rewritten on the backburner, and keep Scions of Olympus off the stove entirely for a while, and putting this and Titanomachia on the front. Sorry if this bugs you. Without further ado, the first chapter of Champion of Light and Dark!**

* * *

 **NYX POV**

As I made sure that night went smoothly and that Artemis wasn't going off the course, I also kept my unruly children in check with assistance from Aether and Hemera. Additionally, I was watching for anything interesting across the half of the world that was in my embrace. What? I get bored sometimes. The part of me watching Manhattan, where the Olympians sat on their thrones, saw something that shocked me through an apartment window.

There was a small boy, who couldn't have been more than seven, running from a fat adult who looked like a walrus and had combed over the few hairs he had on his head, who was holding a vicious-looking knife, that he had certainly not gotten from the kitchen. Lying on the ground was the corpse of a beautiful woman, with long curly brown hair and lifeless blue eyes. There was crimson blood leaking from her jugular, staining the floor.

The adult lifted the knife, and the boy cowered, before trying to run. As he put his hand on a wooden table in an effort to push off, the man's knife landed in the middle of it, impaling it to the table. The boy cried out in pain, and tears fell down his face. The man grinned ferally.

"Real men don't cry, and they keep their pain to themselves. _Why. Haven't. You. Gotten. That. Through. Your. Thick. SKULL YET!_ " A harsh _crack_ filled the room as the man's open hand met the boy's skinny face, causing him to whimper.

The man withdrew a switchblade from his belt. It was smaller than the previous knife, but it would still be painful. I couldn't stand to watch anymore. Just as he lifted the switchblade to strike the boy, I shadow-traveled into the apartment. The first thing I did was numb the hand the man had stabbed, before waving a hand and causing the boy to fall asleep.

"Who the fuck are you? What the fuck do you want?"

"Who I am is none of your business, _mortal_. As to what I want, however…" I trailed off, before sending five shadow tendrils at the man. One grabbed his throat, two restrained his arms, and the others grasped his legs.

The pathetic mortal tried to speak, but I applied pressure to his throat with the tendril. I then summoned a long, wicked knife from the shadows. I looked it over, turning it around. I had intentionally made it rusty and jagged. Just what I needed. Using this painful instrument, I proceeded to castrate the mortal, using the shadows to gag him. Following the removal of his genitalia, I summoned the _arai_.

 _Yes, mother?_ They all spoke together in a manner similar to a voice-over.

"Take this _mortal_ ," I filled the word with venom, "to the Mansion. Unleash upon him _every curse_ that has _ever_ been laid upon him. When you are finished, toss him out into Tartarus."

 _What has he done to incur your wrath, mother?_ One of the _arai_ inquired.

"Look at the woman and the boy," I growled.

After my daughters took the pathetic excuse of a human being away, I gingerly removed the knife from the boy's hand, before laying mine over the injury. A midnight blue glow surrounded both hands as I healed his injury, before I laid my healing spell across his entire body. As I did this, I read the boy's memories to find out who he was and what that man had done.

What I found shocked and horrified me. The boy's name was Perseus Jackson. The dead woman was his mother, Sally, and the mortal was his abusive step-father Gabe Ugliano. The man had done horrible things to both the boy and his wife, forcing the other to watch. From the boy's aura, I could tell that his father was Poseidon. I growled quietly. It seemed that my maternal instincts are kicking in. I couldn't believe that the sea god would abandon his child to this torment.

Poseidon might do that, but _I_ sure as Chaos wouldn't. I lifted the boy up carefully and brought the shadows to us, taking the both of us to a secluded manor in the Adirondack Mountains that was used by Erebus, Aether, Hemera, and I for situations like this. As I did so, I sent a mental message to those three telling them to meet me in the living room of the manor.

* * *

 **HEMERA POV**

 _Meet me in the Dusklight living room_ , was all the mental message sent to me by my mother, Nyx, said. Confused for a second, I recovered enough to send a fragment of me to said room. What I saw was my mom sitting on a couch with a skinny seven-year-old boy that had messy black hair and was asleep on her lap. Shortly after me, Erebus and Aether arrived.

"Who is that child?" inquired Erebus.

Nyx sighed. "He is a son of Poseidon. I saw him being abused by his step-father after that pathetic mortal murdered the child's mother."

I gasped, as did Aether. "What did you do to punish him?" I inquired.

Nyx grinned. "I sicced the _arai_ on him and told them to throw him out into Tartarus when they were done."

Erebus spoke again. "What will we do with the child?"

"Isn't it obvious, father? We raise him!" answered Aether.

"Just wanted to make sure, son," Erebus said, smiling.

Just then, the boy woke up.

* * *

 **A/N: The title of the chapter is Greek for safety, by the way. I'm going to do it for all of the other chapters, unless you guys don't like it. So, in my plans for this, we'll see Percy get adopted by Nyx and Erebus and blessed by Aether and Hemera next chapter, and the chapter after that is going to be a montage-thing of Percy's life and training in Dusklight Manor, one scene for every year he lives there. After that, we will actually get into the story.**


	2. Chapter II - Néa Oikogéneia

**A/N: Okay, so it has been a while. Sorry, I've been brainstorming ideas for other projects, and Track practice started last week, so yeah. Here is Chapter II of Champion of Light and Dark, Néa Oikogéneia!**

* * *

 **PERCY POV**

I woke up slowly. I yawned and rubbed my eyes. Then, I remembered what had happened last night. Gabe killed Mama, and then that weird lady appeared. She made my hand feel better, and then I fell asleep. Just after that thought came another: _Where am I?_

Looking around, I saw three people. Two of them were men, and the other one was a woman. The woman had sky blue eyes that looked at me full of pity, akin to the eyes of the other two, though the man next to her had eyes the colour of the sun, and the man on the same couch as me had black skin and black eyes. By black, I mean _black_ , as in the colour of shadows. I then realized that I was lying in the lap of somebody.

Looking up, I saw a beautiful woman wearing a black dress, with midnight skin and eyes that looked like stars, with hair matching her dress. Finally, I spoke.

"W-Who are you?" I stammered.

The woman that held me smiled warmly down at me. "My name is Nyx, child. He," she gestured to the black man, "is my husband, Erebus. Those two," she pointed at the ones on the other couch, "are our children, Aether and Hemera."

"What happened to Smelly Gabe?"

"He has been punished." The woman refused to go into detail.

"W-what happened to M-Mom?" I asked, scared to hear the answer.

The woman sighed sadly, and my spirits sank. "She is in a better place now, child."

I grabbed her dress, pulling myself close to her, and sobbed uncontrollably. I don't know how long I wept. Eventually, I didn't have anymore tears in me, and so I stopped, taking comfort in the whispers of the woman. Soon, however, something occurred to me.

"Where will I go now?" I whispered, voice hoarse from crying so much.

The woman hesitated for a moment before answering. "We were wondering if you would like to live with us, actually."

"Why can't my dad actually do his job for once and take care of me?"

A sigh escaped the woman's mouth. "Child, do you know of the Greek gods? Their children?"

"Yeah," I answered, with a questioning lilt at the end. What did this have to do with my dad?

"Well, the myths are real. The Greek gods exist, and they have children with mortals, called demigods. Your father is Poseidon, God of the Seas."

My anger at my father only grew with that statement. "If he's a god, then how come he never did anything about Smelly Gabe?"

"I do not know, child. What I do know, however, is that if you ever confront him about it, he will hide behind the Ancient Laws that prevent direct interference by the gods."

"Wait a minute...Isn't Nyx the goddess of night?"

"You would be correct. I am in fact Nyx, primordial goddess of the night. My husband is Erebus, primordial god of darkness. Aether is the primordial of light, and Hemera is the primordial of day."

I sat in silence for a while, thinking. Was I going to live with them? I mean, they're _gods_. How would that even work. What was I even thinking? Of course I'm going to live with them, unless I want to live on the streets. At age seven? No way, Jose. I smiled up at Nyx.

"I'd like to live with you guys."

Nyx grinned in response. "Well, first Erebus and I are going to have to adopt you."

"Er-is there any paperwork involved? I'm dyslexic."

Erebus laughed. It was deep, but it was comforting, not scary. "No, child. There's no paperwork involved. What she means is we have to claim you as our son, giving you the same powers a normal demigod child of one of us would have. You'll still have your natural abilities that you inherited from Poseidon, though."

"Also, Aether and I would like you to receive some powers from us. We won't adopt you, but you will become our champion and get some powers."

"Okay. What powers will I get?" I asked enthusiastically.

"From Erebus and Nyx, you'll be able to control shadows and use them to teleport. From Nyx, you'll get strength by being in the darkness of night. From Hem and I, you'll get the ability to control light and use it to teleport. From Hem, you'll get strength from daylight," answered Aether. He seemed pretty laid-back, like a cool older brother.

"Cool!"

Hemera chuckled at my enthusiasm. "Just so you know, child: the power will most likely make you pass out."

I shrugged, signalling permission for them to begin. Nyx and Erebus both put their hands on my forehead, with Nyx's glowing midnight blue and Erebus's glowing back. The power pumped through my body, causing slight pains and making me extremely energetic, which isn't good for somebody with ADHD like me. Before I could begin to bounce off the walls, the energy and feeling of power subsided, leaving me drained, like after a sugar rush. After this, Aether and Hemera place their hands on my forehead, like Nyx and Erebus. Aether's hand glowed golden, and Hemera's glowed sky blue. This time, there was even more energy, but, true to Hemera's words, after it passed, I fell unconscious.

* * *

When I woke up, I was in a comfortable King-sized bed, in a room that was mostly black, but it did have bronze designs to keep it from being too dark, as well as windows through which golden sunlight shone, directly on me, though not my face. As promised, I felt stronger than usual in the light. As I sat up, Hemera appeared on the left side of the bed, shortly followed by Aether next to her, and Nyx and Erebus appeared opposite them.

"How do you feel, brother?" asked Hemera warmly. I smiled slightly at being called brother. After all, it'd never happened before, and it felt good.

"Amazing."

"That's good, Perseus, because you'll only have today to rest before you start training," said Erebus.

"Training? Also, please call me Percy. Perseus makes me sound old."

"You're a demigod, Percy, and a powerful one at that. In order for you to survive outside of the manor, you're going to have to train. Swordsmanship, archery, strategy, how to use your powers, the different myths. And, you still have to finish your education, young man!" answered Nyx. Percy chuckled, feeling at home already.

* * *

 **A/N: So, I think what I'm going to do from now on is switch weeks between Titanomachia and CoLaD, so the rest of this week is going to be all Champion chapters, and the next week is going to be Titanomachia chapters. Can't promise anything about the rate of chapters per week, but there will definitely be at least one a week. Also, I have my first Track meet this season tomorrow, so wish me luck! Additionally, the chapter title for this one translates to "New Family."**

 **JarkosofTroy, signing off!**


	3. Chapter III - Agoge

**A/N: Hello! Sorry it took so long for this chapter, but it is the longest I've ever written, and would've been longer if I hadn't decided that one scene both didn't make sense and was unnecessary. Without further adieu, I give to you, Chapter III of Champion of Light and Dark! Also, the poll for Titanomachia's pairing is closed; the results will be given at the start of the next chapter for that.**

* * *

 **THIRD PERSON POV**

It had been three months since Percy was adopted by Nyx and Erebus. True to their word, he had started training the day after he woke up and got the tour of the house, Dusklight Manor. Percy had to wake up at 7:15 AM, getting fifteen minutes to change his clothes before breakfast at 7:30, which lasted for half an hour, before his hour-long classes began. Right now, it was sometime between 5:30 and 6:00 PM, and Percy was sparring against a group of four beings of shadow, wielding Ancient Greek weapons and armour.

Nyx stood on the side, controlling the shadows, while also watching Perseus and occasionally shouting out advice and corrections to her son. As one of the shadows charged with a kopis and a hoplon, Percy sidestepped, before sending the blade in his offhand scything at the shadow's neck, while the sword in his right hand parried a doru from another. The offhand blade was black as a nightmare, with topaz embedded in the hilt, crossguard, and pommel, and a leaf-shaped blade. Percy's other weapon was golden, with onyx embedded in the same places as topaz was in the black blade. The ebony sword was named Mávrifotiá, meaning Blackfire, and was a gift from Erebus and Nyx, a xiphos made of Stygian Iron enchanted to grow to fit its wielder perfectly, and the golden one was Eosphoros, meaning Dawnbringer, a sword that matched Blackfire perfectly, except it was made of Enchanted Gold, and had onyx instead of topaz.

The doru-wielding opponent struck again, synchronized with another spear-wielder, assailing both sides of Percy's torso. Instead of using his blades to defend himself, Percy dodged both spears, before lashing out with his perfectly-balanced swords, striking both of them in the spine, dispelling them. The final opponent wielded two xiphoi, just like Percy - except he was the size of an adult, and his swords matched his height. As the seven-year-old began to spin his swords, preparing to attack, the shadow assaulted, a hurricane of shadow.

It was all Percy could do to defend against the onslaught. Suddenly, his hairs stood on end, and his instincts screamed at him to _JUMP!_ And jump he did, leaping to the side, tumbling roughly upon landing. As he recovered, he saw that an entire half a sheaf of shadow-arrows had been unleashed upon Percy's opponent, with the shadow warrior only being able to deflect five of them, the other seven having hit his arms and chest, but he still stood. Percy soon realized that the shade wasn't paying attention to him - he was searching for the hidden archer. Taking his chance, Percy lunged at the warrior, blades swirling around him.

* * *

Hemera frowned at her new brother and champion's performance in archery. It was...lacking, to say the least. For now, he was wielding a solid bow, as he had not been able to sustain both a bow and arrows from either light or shadow yet, which was understandable. After all, he was only eight. However, he had been training for a year, and still had yet to hit the target anywhere closer to the bullseye than the black ring. It was still a vast improvement over when he started; back then, Percy couldn't even come close to hitting the target.

As her student, little brother, and champion nocked another arrow, he looked to his older sister for permission to let fly. She nodded, and he looked back to the target, making sure that his aim was still good, before letting the string go. Hemera payed close attention to his hand as Percy let fly, and saw an error that was most likely the reason for him missing his target.

When the arrow made a _thud_ as it impacted the black ring of the target, Hemera moved to Percy, before correcting his error, and telling him to try again. It took a few tries, but eventually, he hit the blue ring. _Finally!_

* * *

Percy concentrated on the darkness around him, emanated by his father, Erebus, as was to be expected. After all, he was literally the primordial representation of darkness. Obeying his will, the shadows formed a cocoon around the demigod, before transforming into six tendrils, originating from Percy's back.

"Good, son. Soon, you will not need the cocoon," encouraged Erebus, his voice a comforting baritone.

Percy didn't respond, because he was focusing on maintaining and manipulating the tendrils. This session's goal was ten minutes, with catching tennis balls out of the air. The nine-year-old took a deep breath, before nodding, signalling he was ready to begin both the timer and the throwing. As the stopwatch that Erebus had summoned from the shadows beeped, the primordial immediately began hurling the tennis balls at his nine-year-old son telekinetically.

At first, they came one at a time, with a few seconds between each one. As time went on, the time became less than a second, until Erebus began sending multiple tennis balls at his son at once. At first it was just two at a time, growing to three, four, five, and then, six. Somewhere during that time, Percy closed his eyes, focusing, not only on the shadow tendrils, but also on detecting the shadows of the green spheres, using them to find the location of the ball, so he could catch it.

Eventually, the balls came in sextuplets, with less than a second between each set. However, the tendrils successfully caught or deflected all of them, and suddenly the onslaught stopped, heralded by a repeated _beep-beep-beep_ ; the sound of the stopwatch stopping. Percy opened his eyes, and just after he stopped maintaining the tendrils, a tennis ball came straight at his face. Following his instincts, honed through two years of combat training, Jackson ducked under it, before realizing that one of his mom's favorite paintings was in its path. Frantically, he reached out, and the tennis ball was caught by a tendril of darkness extending from his arm, before being pulled into the half-blood's hand. Father and son released a sigh of relief. The last time a painting of Nyx's was broken, their eardrums had almost been destroyed.

"Great job, son! Not only did you succeed in the trial, you saved Nyx's painting!" Erebus was genuinely happy, patting his son on the back in congratulations.

* * *

Aether smiled. His little brother was doing great! He'd come along well in the powers department. Percy could now create arrows of light, as well as a bow of light, though he preferred shadows for that. He could also fire blasts of light at foes, blinding them or giving them a nasty sunburn. And by nasty, he meant _lethal_. Now, however, Percy was gonna learn how to combine those two talents. Oh yeah! Exploding arrows of light!

"So, Aether, what am I going to learn today?" asked Percy, his mouth smirking in his trademark lopsided grin.

Aether explained the subject to him excitedly, and his grin grew.

"Well, let's not waste time then!"

And so they began the lesson, warming up with Percy firing light arrows and blasts of light at Lightforms that Aether had summoned. Eventually, they moved on to the method of combining the two techniques - when you conjure the arrow, you focus into it all of the energy of a light blast, making sure to contain it, before firing the. When you release control of the arrow, the blast is released. After the short lecture, Percy began attempting the method. It took a while for the arrows to not blow up in his face, and then a while longer for them to not blow up before reaching the target. Fortunately, for the start, Aether had told him to use the energy of a flash, not a blast, so he was only slightly disoriented. After Percy managed to consistently release the flash when the arrow hit the target, he then began to increase the energy in the arrow, until the could take out a group of Lightforms with a single arrow-blast.

Aether smiled proudly, patting his little brother on the back as the class ended.

* * *

Percy furrowed his brow in concentration, looking over the board, searching for any weaknesses in his defense or openings in his opponent's defense. Finding one, he immediately began planning out how to exploit it while not exposing himself. His planning complete, the ten-year-old began his move, grabbing a bishop and moving it into position.

Nyx responded just as her son thought she would, moving a knight to counter the bishop. Internally smiling, Percy moved the bishop into a position that was extremely advantageous - if Nyx played the way he thought she would, then he would be able to both take out her knight with this move, and place her into checkmate.

The primordial of night, however, did not take the bishop with her knight, though it was entirely possible - instead, she moved a rook to eliminate it. Quickly reanalyzing the board, Percy found that his plan was still salvageable. A black pawn took the rook, and a white knight knocked over the pawn. In response, the black queen moved in for the kill, striking down the white knight and staring down the knight's king, who was trapped by his own men.

"Checkmate!" The eleven-year-old claimed excitedly.

Nyx looked over the battlefield, and saw that she had, in fact, lost to her son. A smile split her face, as she congratulated Percy and shadow-travelled them both to dinner.

* * *

Percy looked into the orb in his room, frowning. This thing didn't transmit sound, but he could get the gist of what was going down. Thalia Grace, a twelve-year-old girl with electric blue eyes and spiky black hair and the daughter of Zeus, was planning on sacrificing herself to keep her companions alive. She was arguing with the eldest, Luke Castellan, a son of Hermes with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes, a fourteen-year-old.

In the end, Thalia pushed Luke towards the border of Camp Half-Blood, and readied herself to fight the horde of hellhounds, cyclopes, and dracaenae after her, lead by the Furies, making clear their allegiance: Hades, Lord of the Dead. He was attempting to kill his niece due to the fact that the Big Three (Hades, Zeus, and Poseidon) had made an oath to not have any more demigod children after World War Two, and Thalia's existence was in violation of that pact.

Before the fight began, Percy knew Thalia wasn't going to make it. He pondered an idea. Sure, he'd get in trouble, but it was worth it for something like this. Nodding to himself, he summoned Blackfire and Dawnbringer, before disappearing in a flash of light.

* * *

When he arrived, Thalia was about to be brained by the club of a cyclops. Immediately, Thalia's shadow solidified and rose to disarm the cyclops by rending the club from its hands. The cyclops stared dumbly at where its weapon had been a moment earlier, before having two swords plunged into its lone eye, blinding it. Percy then impaled the cyclops with its own shadow. Thalia stared in shock at him, before he spoke up.

"So, are we gonna send these monsters back to Tartarus, or what?"

Thalia shook her head, before readying Aegis and her spear and standing side by side with Percy. The demigod duo worked perfectly together, striking foes down quickly and efficiently, covering each other's blind spots. Percy fought like a demon, sending scything slashes in a whirlwind of black and gold, disabling the monsters and going straight for the kill, slashing throats and stabbing eyes. Occasionally, Thalia would see a monster have their own shadow stab them in the back, or be exploded by a blast of light. Shadows protected them both, catching blows neither of them could hope to defend against, and light blinded and stunned opponents. Thalia wondered if this was Percy (or the newcomer, as she thought of him), using his powers. If so, then who was his godly parent?

Eventually, the two of them had thinned down the forces to just the Erinyes. The three of them got into a V formation, with the one that presumably was Alecto, the leader, in the middle, with the other two behind and to the sides of her. Alecto attacked first, cracking her whip of fire at her quarry, though one of Percy's swords went to the side and caught it before it could strike the daughter of Zeus. Hissing, Alecto engaged the son of Nyx and Erebus.

Alecto struck with whip and claw, attempting to kill the demigod. However, Percy used both sword and shadow to defend himself, as well as bobbing and weaving through her attacks, taunting the Fury all the while. Eventually, the Erinye got frustrated and initiated an all-out, screaming, assault in a bout of berserk rage. Smirking, the champion of Aether and Hemera, bound her with shadow tendrils, before decapitating her. Turning to the other battle that was going on, Percy saw that Thalia was managing to stay alive against the onslaught of Megaera and Tisiphone, but it wouldn't last for long.

Lunging forth, Percy's first two blows were simultaneous, slashing off the wings of Tisiphone, causing her to fall to the ground, stunned. Another scything slash cut her throat, sending her back to her master. Thalia and Percy stood side to side yet again, united against Megaera. Thalia's lightning, shield and spear, combined with Percy's swords, shadows, and light, overwhelmed her, and the Fury was killed with a lightning-charged spear to the chest, courtesy of the daughter of Zeus.

"Who are you?" Thalia immediately asked.

Percy chuckled before responding, "My name is Perseus, but you can call me Percy."

"Who's your godly parent?"

Percy thought for a while, scratching his chin. Thalia took this time to take in his appearance. His messy hair was jet-black, and he had sunkissed skin, with a swimmer's build. The mysterious demigod was wearing a midnight blue hoodie, unzipped, over a white tee that featured an image of the sun rising, and the words _EVERY DAY IS A NEW DAY_ , as well as loose denim jeans held up by a simple black belt, with matching shoes. What was most interesting about his appearance was his eyes; they were unlike anything Thalia'd seen before. His right iris was midnight blue, with flecks of sky blue in it. His left iris, however, was jet black with flecks of bright yellow.

Finally, Percy spoke. "Unfortunately, I can't tell you that." Just as Thalia was going to ask why, he spoke again. "Oh! There's my cue to go. See you later!"

Percy disappeared into the shadows, and Thalia turned around to see Luke and Annabeth, accompanied by other teenagers in bronze armour, lead by a centaur.

* * *

 **A/N: Finally! This chapter took a while for me to make, and is definitely the longest one I've written before. Over two thousand words! I wouldn't get used to it, though, because after this I'm returning to my normal length. The name of this chapter, Agoge, is the name of the training regimen the Spartans went through, as well as meaning "rearing," as in raising a child.**

 **JarkosofTroy, signing off!**


	4. Chapter IV - Próti Epafí

**A/N: Heya! So, yes, another chapter today! It is actually fairly easy to write 1000-word chapters when you know what's going to happen in each of them. However, I think that I'm going to limit myself to one chapter a day from now on, so I don't finish the Titan's Curse arc extremely fast. That, combined with the whole alternating weeks thing, should allow this arc to last a bit, while I plan the next arc out. Without further** _ **adieu**_ **, Chapter IV of Champion of Light and Dark!**

* * *

 **PERCY POV**

As I trudged through the snow to Westover Hall, I thought about what had happened in the years since I saved Thalia's life. I knew that Hades was frustrated, but hadn't continued his attempt to kill Thalia. Shortly after Thalia's arrival, at the Winter Solstice, Poseidon's trident was stolen, and Thalia was one of the main suspects. To prove her innocence, Thalia went on a quest with Luke Castellan and Annabeth Chase to recover the Trident. On the quest, it was revealed that the same person who stole Poseidon's Trident stole the Helm of Darkness, Hades's symbol of Power. Thalia recovered it from Ares, who had been convinced to aid Chris Rodriguez, son of Hermes, who had stolen the Trident and the Helm on the direction of Kronos.

Chris's identity as the thief, however, wasn't revealed until later, when Luke decided to hang out with his big brother in the woods. Chris planned on taking Luke to use as a bargaining chip against Thalia, but she came to where they were, looking for Luke. Seeing the situation, Thalia defended Luke, and ended up taking a sting from a pit scorpion, nearly killing her. I clenched my fist at the thought. For some reason, after saving her life, I became strangely protective of Thalia, getting angry whenever I thought about her nearly dying.

The next year, Chris had poisoned the magical pine tree that empowered the barrier protecting Camp Half-Blood, causing the barrier to slowly fail. Chiron was a suspect, and was so forced to abdicate his position as Activities Director, being replaced by Tantalus. Seriously! _Tantalus!_ Y'know, the dude who was sentenced to the Fields of Punishment for _feeding his son to the gods!_ Those very same gods decided he was a good person to replace Chiron. Anyway, Tantalus chose Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares, to lead a quest to find the Golden Fleece in order to fix the tree. However, Clarisse went on her own, taking the ironclad CSS _Birmingham_ , crewed by zombie Confederates, to the Sea of Monsters. Hermes gave Percy, Annabeth, and Luke some stuff, and they secretly left during the night to also hunt down and find the Golden Fleece. Ending up working together with Clarisse, they succeeded, and the tree was healed.

It had been a year since then, and I was now fourteen. My parents, as well as Aether and Hemera, had pressured me into doing this mission, mainly as a way of getting Hades off my back. The mission was to prevent either the campers or the Hunters from getting their hands on either of his two children, Bianca and Nico di Angelo. Mom had explained to me that they were born before World War II, and were placed in the Lotus Hotel and Casino in order to keep them safe, having just now been placed into Westover Hall in Maine. Unfortunately, the newest Vice Principal was Doctor Thorn, a Manticore.

Camp Half-Blood had dispatched a group of demigods to find and recruit the di Angelos, and the Hunters were also going to be there. I was going to kill Thorn and either light or shadow travel the di Angelos to the Palace of Hades, along with a note apologizing for impeding his efforts to kill Thalia from my mom.

Sighing, I decided to not build any more character and just shadow traveled to Westover Hall. That was a good decision, as the campers were already there, engaging monsters, and the Hunters were sure to be here soon. Sighing, I drew my two blades and began cutting a swath through the monsters to Doc Thorn and the di Angelos. It was easy enough, though it did garner the attention of the demigods. Ignoring them, though they did seem familiar, even with only a cursory glance, I confronted the Manticore.

"Hand over the di Angelos, and I won't shove your tail down your throat," I growled.

Doc Thorn chuckled. "I don't think so, little half-blood. I do think I will _eat you_!" The monster lunged at me, releasing the di Angelos. Sliding under him, I used my dual swords to slash his underside, Blackfire draining his soul, and Dawnbringer just slashing like normal Enchanted, or Imperial, Gold. Hissing in pain, the Manticore turned around, staring me down. I waved my hand in the direction of the di Angelos, dropping the note, before they disappeared in a flash of light, taking the note with them.

"Where did you send them?" growled Thorn, maintaining his French accent.

"To their father," I answered simply, before I heard a hunting horn in the distance. Mentally sighing, I decided to finish this quickly.

Lunging forth, my two blades trailing behind me, I quickly snapped them in front of me to deflect the spikes coming at me, aided by tendrils of shadow. Then, I began to slash at his face with both swords, before leaping onto his back, causing him to fight wildly to throw me off. His tail was immobilized by my shadow, preventing him from attacking me with it. I dispelled Blackfire so I could hold onto him with my left hand, raising Dawnbringer high to finish the monster.

"Permission to kill, milady?" A female voice that sounded like it was reading an old book sounded across the clearing.

"Granted." Another voice, still female but obviously divine, answered.

I heard the _twang_ of a bow being released, forcing me to delay my finishing blow to deflect the arrow with Dawnbringer.

"This is my prey, huntress," I growled. Unfortunately, Doc Thorn had gotten to the edge of the cliff overlooking the sea, and before I could jump off, he decided to commit suicide. I still held on, and simply cut his throat, before light-traveling back up.

When I arrived back on the cliff, the Hunters of Artemis immediately pointed their bows at me. I put my hands up. They probably thought I was surrendering, when I was actually preparing for what I knew was going to happen.

Artemis, in the form of a thirteen-year-old with auburn hair and eyes the colour of the moon, stepped forth, her silver bow trained on me just like her handmaidens.

"Who are you?" Her voice was regal, just as you'd expect from a goddess.

I raised an eyebrow. "Why should I tell you?"

"Do you know who milady is?"

I turned to the huntress, who, from the tiara in her hair, was most likely the Lieutenant. "Yes."

"Then you know I am an Olympian goddess. And you still refuse to answer me?"

I nodded.

"Even though my hunters have their bows trained on you?"

Smirking, I used the shadows of the trees and the Hunters themselves to shadow travel their bows away. "Not anymore they don't." Artemis began to speak, but I cut her off. "And I could kill them in an instant, so I don't think you want to let fly that arrow at me. Not to mention what my parents would do to you."

"Your parents?" Artemis said, with an arched brow.

Before I could answer, a female voice spoke up from behind me. "Percy?" It was Thalia. I turned my neck to look at her, flashing her my trademark lopsided grin.

"Heya."

"You know him, Thals?" asked Luke Castellan, who was next to Thalia.

"Without him, I would've been dead two years ago, Luke. Thanks for that, by the way."

"No problem." I focused, using my powers to sense the current time, roughly. I couldn't sense the exact time, but I could sense the rough time - about as accurate as using the position of the Sun or Moon - thanks to my night powers from Mom and my day powers from Hem. It was around the time I said I'd be back.

"Hmm, would you look at the time! I should really be going now, so, _adios_!" I said, before disappearing in a flash of light back to my room at Dusklight Manor.

* * *

 **A/N: The title of this chapter translates to First Contact, as this is really the first contact between Percy and Olympus. I'm not going to count the Thalia scene, because, while she told her friends about what happened, it never spread beyond them. Also, this is the last chapter for a while; next week will be all Titanomachia.**

 **JarkosofTroy, signing off!**


	5. Chapter V - Klísi Gia Na Peripéteia

**A/N: I am so, so sorry, guys! I've been AWOL for the past four weeks because I first had two week-long school trips in a row, and then I had finals. Now, school's out for me, so I'll have tons of free time to devote to this. Without further adieu, Chapter V of Champion of Light and Dark!**

* * *

 **PERCY POV**

After I light-traveled to my room, I took off my clothes and took a shower. Despite me disowning Poseidon as my father, I still held power over water, including being refreshed by it. For a while, I just stood in the shower, allowing the water to clear my mind, before I began to clean my body.

After the shower, I walked down the stairs of Dusklight Manor to the ground floor, before proceeding into the dining room. At the table, which was currently a small rectangular table, able to comfortably fit six people - two on each side, with one at each head of the table. Five people were already there - Mom and Dad sat next to each other on one side of the table, with Hem and Aether opposite them. At the head, there was my second-favourite brother, Moros, the primordial spirit of doom. The only empty seat was opposite him.

"And the honoured guest arrives!" Moros shouted as soon as he saw me.

Mom immediately got up and hugged me tightly. She was joined soon by Hem. I returned their affection, and after a while they returned to their seats of their own free will. Shortly after them, I sat down opposite my brother Doom, immediately digging into the food at the plate in front of me.

"So how'd the mission go?" inquired Aether.

I paused to swallow the salmon in my mouth, before answering. "It was a success, though there was a short encounter with Artemis."

Mom looked at me with concern. "What happened?"

"They arrived before I could kill the Manticore, but after I'd sent the di Angelos to Hades. There was a short confrontation - Artemis wanted my name, I refused to give it to her, she threatened to shoot me, I threatened to kill her Hunters. I checked the time after that, and saw it was close to dinnertime, and so I light-traveled to my room."

Mom raised an eyebrow. "You threatened to kill her Hunters?"

I shrugged. "I wouldn't have actually gone through with it. You know me too well to think I would."

Mom smiled at me. "Of course. Just making sure."

Most of the rest of the meal was in companionable silence, though there was some small-talk. Y'know, the usual - discussing the latest news and our opinions on it. Now, you may be wondering about the whole second-favourite-brother thing with Moros. Well, he's my second favourite brother because he's the only sibling apart from Aether and Hemera who really acknowledges that I'm their brother. The others either dislike me or act as if I don't exist. And, well, since Aether's my favourite - after all, he did give me his blessing and help raise me.

* * *

Two days later, Moros gave me a visit, in the form of a dream. Gods can do that. Anyway, I was surprised, given that it isn't every day Doom himself gives you a dream message, even if you _are_ his brother. We were both in a featureless black room, which I could see perfectly in, given my adoptive parentage.

"What's up, Moros?" I asked cautiously, as I sat down across from him in the chair he had just conjured up for me, across his own.

"Does something have to be up for me to talk to my little bro?" he responded.

I rolled my eyes. "It does if you're talking to me in my dreams."

Moros grinned his carefree grin. "You got me there, lil bro."

"So, what's so important you need to send me a dream message?"

"Well," he elongated the word, "you know Artemis?"

"Of course I do."

"She may have been kidnapped by a Titan."

I stood up, shocked. "What‽"

"Yeah. The camp's sent out a quest to free her. Only, they aren't following the prophecy, and if you don't join them, they'll be doomed to failure."

I'd calmed down and sat back in my chair. Raising my eyebrow, I inquired, "What's the prophecy?"

Moros sat up straight and coughed to clear his throat, before taking a deep breath.

" _Five shall go west to the goddess in chains,_

 _One shall be lost in the land without rain,_

 _The Bane of Olympus shows the trail,_

 _Campers and Hunters combined prevail,_

 _The Titan's Curse must one withstand,_

 _And one shall perish by a parent's hand._ "

Interesting. "So, which part of the prophecy aren't they following?"

"The first line. One of the original quest members, a hunter, was pranked by two Hermes campers with a shirt coated in heavily diluted Centaur blood, and since it doesn't rain at Camp Half-Blood, they thought that she was the one lost in the land without rain, so only four left. Since only four are going west, they'll be doomed unless you go."

"When should I leave?"

"You should start getting ready when you wake up, and leave as soon as you're ready. Either shadow travel or light travel to Washington, D.C. - that's where they'll be. See ya, lil bro."

With that, I woke up. I threw off my sheets, showered, and packed my equipment into my enchanted backpack. Sleeping bag, check. Duct tape, check. Pillow, check. Food, check. Water bottles, check. Mortal money, check. Drachmas, check. Prism, check. Flashlight, check. Changes of clothes, check. Magical TARDIS tent, check. Shouldering my bag, I disappeared into the shadows, willing them to carry me to the District of Columbia.

* * *

 **A/N: The title of this chapter translates to Call to Adventure - a reference to the Hero's Journey, where the Call to Adventure is when the hero is summoned to go on his quest. Other names for it are the inciting incident - usually used for less fantastic stories than this.**

 **A side note - I recently discovered the most badass Greek hero in the Trojan War, Diomedes. Okay, so he's a mortal, favored by Athena, who was one of the Epigoni who** _ **destroyed Thebes**_ **, and he becomes the king of Argos at fifteen. During the Trojan War, he literally has the** _ **longest Crowning Moment of Awesome**_ _**in the entire Iliad**_ **. (In Greek epics, like the Iliad, characters had what was called the aristeia, which is by definition, their finest moment. The aristeia of Diomedes starts in Book V, and ends in Book VI, and involves a shield doubling as a flamethrower, Diomedes crushing Aeneas's hip, and wounding both Aphrodite and Ares** _ **in a single day**_ **, as well as fighting Apollo.**

 **Excuse the rant. Just had to share this epicness. I recommend looking up his Badass of the Week page, because it does his badassitude much more justice than I could.**

 **JarkosofTroy, signing off!**


	6. Chapter VI - Trómo Tis Neméas

**A/N: Heya! Sorry for the wait - my summer's been hectic so far, so I didn't really have time to write this. Now, Percy finally joins the quest! Without further adieu, Chapter VI of Champion of Light and Dark!**

* * *

 **PERCY POV**

I searched for the quest, hopping from building to building, using a combination of both shadow-traveling and light-traveling to fill in where my parkour skills lacked. Just as I saw the quest, exiting their van and deciding to head towards one of the buildings lining the mall, I also saw a man step out of a black sedan, which I recognized as Doctor Thorn. I cursed mentally. How did he reform so fast?

Shaking those thoughts out of my head, I began to trail the manticore, who was trailing the quest. Eventually, we reached the Smithsonian. The quest entered the National Air and Space Museum, while Doc Thorn went into the National Museum of Natural History. I decided to follow Thorn instead of the quest - after all, I could get valuable intelligence on what we would be facing on our journey.

I commanded the shadows to take me to the interior of the museum, and used this method to trail Thorn to a dinosaur exhibit. Inside, there were some mortal mercenaries, - Percy felt a pang of disgust at their presence - a teen or young adult with sandy blonde hair and sky blue eyes, who Percy idly recognized as Chris Rodriguez, son of Hermes - and a large man, who had the aura of a Titan. _Shit_.

"Do you have them, Thorn?" bellowed the Titan.

"Yes, my lord."

"Have you gotten them from the correct exhibit this time, Thorn?"

"Y-yes, my lord." I don't blame Thorn for quivering - Titans are fairly intimidating.

"Then plant them!"

Thorn handed some items, which I couldn't make out, to some of the mercenaries. The ones who didn't get the items instead picked up some watering cans. _Huh?_ The mercenaries with some of the items buried them in the ground, before those with watering cans stepped up and poured blood on them. From where the items were planted, sprouted nine skeleton warriors, which I recognized as _spartoi_. _Double shit_.

"Do you have the clothes, Chris?" The Titan turned to Chris.

"Yes, General. It was taken from the Lieutenant, Zoe N-"

"Do not speak her name!" roared the Titan.

"S-sorry, my lord," apologized Chris, cowed.

The Titan took the scrap of silver cloth Chris had, and handed it to the _spartoi_. They began to take turns smelling it. I considered trying to take it, but realized they'd just take some of my clothes. Instead, I shadow traveled into the Air and Space Museum. Luckily, I was in the same exhibit the quest was in. Sprinting out of the shadows, I shouted for their attention, waving my hand frantically. They stopped and turned around to look at me.

Zoe spoke first. "What doth thee want, _boy_?"

"First of all, there are nine _spartoi_ with _your_ ," I pointed at Zoe, "scent, and second of all, I'm here to join your quest, because according to Moros, if I don't, you're doomed to failure."

The other Hunter, with ginger hair and a beefy build, snorts. "How would you know what Moros says?"

I glared at her. "He's my brother." She opened her mouth. "I swear on the River Styx that everything I just said is true."

Zoe paled, before shaking it off, and beginning to issue orders to her questmates. They began to move out of the museum, before we all heard the sound of a giant beast stomping around.

"Look mommy, a kitty!" cried a five-year-old, as he pointed at a lion the size of a pick-up truck, with glittering gold fur, shiny silvery claws, and fangs like stainless steel.

"Triple shit," I muttered, getting a few odd looks, before I summoned Blackfire and Dawnbringer, readying for the fight. The two Hunters climbed up to a vantage point, where they readied their bows, leaving me with Thalia and the other quester - a young daughter of Athena I didn't know the name of.

"Aim for the eyes!" I shouted. Thalia's spear charged with crackling electricity, while the Athena girl readied a Celestial Bronze dagger and donned a Yankees cap, turning her invisible. The Hunters seemed to have heard my advice, as their arrows were landing near the monster's eyes. However, it's movement made it difficult for them to land any hits. I saw sparks sprouting from the Lion's pelt, attracting the monster's attention. Definitely the Athena girl's work.

Thalia charged, jabbing at the beast with her electrically-charged spear. I charged along with her. We worked together just as well as we did that day on Half-Blood Hill two years ago, distracting the Lion when the other went in for a strike. Then, Thalia tripped on some debris of the exhibits the Lion had destroyed, and the giant cat pounced on the opportunity, slamming into her with one of its paws, sending her into the wall and unconsciousness. This infuriated me, and the beast roaring triumphantly only added fuel to the flame of hatred for it. Wait...the mouth didn't have any fur in it!

"Go for the mouth!" I cried, as I gathered shadows in my left hand to form a bow.

With my right, I released a flash of light at the Lion, garnering its attention, before letting fly a volley of light arrows, all simply annoyances for the weapon-proof monster. This process continued, until the Lion was so annoyed that it released a frustrated roar. Taking my chance, I fired an explosive arrow of light from my bow of shadow, going into the Lion's gullet, where it exploded, causing the monster to dissolve into golden dust, the only remnant being a metallic golden pelt.

"Take the pelt, boy. It is your spoil," said Zoe.

The other hunter chimed in with, "After all, it _was_ worn by Heracles once. Don't _all_ you boys want to be just like him?"

As I shrugged the pelt onto my torso, and it shifted forms into a leather jacket, I responded. "I'd rather be like Diomedes, myself. Now, we should probably get going. After all, we do have nine _spartoi_ after us."

* * *

 **A/N: The title of this chapter translates to Terror of Nemea, referring to the Nemean Lion, which got its name for terrorizing the kingdom of Nemea. Apologies for its shortness - it is just above 1000 words, which is less than the others.**

 **JarkosofTroy, signing off!**


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